Humans could live on the Moon for lengthy periods during this decade, a NASA official told the BBC.
Chief of the Orion lunar spacecraft programme Howard Hu said that NASA intends to establish liveable habitats on the lunar surface to conduct scientific research missions.
A 'manikin' sits atop the rocket which will register the impacts of the flight on the human body, collecting information that will prove useful for future human space travel.
The Orion spacecraft reached just 130 kilometres above the lunar surface on November 21, the closest a capsule designed to hold people has been to the Moon in half a century.
Hu called last week’s launch of the Artemis rocket, which carried the Orion spacecraft, a "historic day for human space flight".